Angela Kinsey and Ellie Kemper on Saying Goodbye to The Office

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We talk to two of Dunder Mifflin's loyal employees about the end of the series.

By Eric Goldman

After nine seasons, The Office is coming to an end in just a few weeks. I sat down with two of the show’s ensemble, Angela Kinsey (“Angela”) and Ellie Kemper (“Erin”), to discuss what it was like to say goodbye to Dunder Mifflin and what we can expect in these final episodes.

Note: I began speaking to Kinsey by herself, with Kemper joining us a few minutes in.

IGN TV: Angela, you were there from the very beginning. You wrapped production a few weeks ago, but you’re promoting the show still. Is it a bit of a weird period of having said goodbye, but still not being 100% finished with it?

Angela Kinsey: It does feel a little bit like a prolonged goodbye, and it’s still emotional, even if I think about those last few days. Now, promos are coming out for the final four episodes, and I’m getting emotional all over again. It’s like that breakup where you keep listening to the song that was your song or something. But I’m really proud of these last four episodes. I’m really excited for everyone to see them. Being there since the pilot, I woke up in a cold sweat the other morning because I was like, “Where am I supposed to be? Nowhere.” Also, just the group of people I’ve grown accustomed to seeing. I’m definitely staying in touch with people, but there is this ache, if you will, this part of you that’s gone. I haven’t really felt this way since I was a child -- we moved from Indonesia to the U.S. -- and I said goodbye to some people in Indonesia that I knew I would never see again. I think there’s part of me that wonders -- there were about 200 people that worked on The Office on any given day, from crew to producers to writers to cast, and I know there are some of them that I may not ever cross paths with again. I’ve seen them almost every day for nine years, so it feels like a very big goodbye.

Angela Kinsey in The Office.

IGN: In the history of television, there’s really not that many shows to make it to Season 9.

Kinsey: Yeah, you start reading about it and you start thinking about it, and you see The Office in the same paragraph as Seinfeld or Cheers or some of those really longstanding shows. You just feel so lucky that you were in that club.

IGN: What was the vibe like on set the last few weeks and especially filming the finale, knowing what you guys were heading towards?

Kinsey: I’m telling you, it was really bittersweet. I remember the cast got together to talk about what we were going to get the crew as a farewell gift, three weeks before the end, and me, Kate and Jenna started tearing up. Then one day we were at a table read, and it was our second-to-last table read, and Phyllis is tearing up. It was just hitting us all at different times -- the whole year, really, but it definitely started getting concentrated.

IGN: A lot of shows end in different ways and find out when they’re ending in different ways, so was it good for you to know that this was your “senior year” pretty much the whole time?

Kinsey: It felt like a luxury, in this business, but you get to sort of call your out. You know, like, “This is how we’re going out,” and then we got to plan the whole year for that.

[Editor’s Note: Ellie Kemper joined us at this point.]

I always compare it to improv. If you have a great laugh and you go out on a big blackout of lights with the applause -- what you don’t want is that slow fade of lights, the brown out. That’s, like, the worst. And I feel like we got to have that really great ending, because we called it from the beginning, Greg [Daniels]and the writers started writing that way from the beginning. They were like, “Okay, every character’s going to have a goodbye,” and you just don’t always get that. Had we stayed on the air, you just don’t know. We would have lost people with contract things, and then at what point is it still the show? You don’t want to fade away. You want to be able to go out.

Ellie Kemper: On a really strong note -- and I agree. I remember we were shooting “Work Bus,” right, when we all got the email from Greg.

Kinsey: When it was official, right.

Kemper: Yeah, and we all had a break, and we all went back to our trailers. Then everyone came out, and we had all gotten this email from Greg that said, “This will be the last season.” I’m always the last to know anything, but I felt like it wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that it might be the end, but it is so nice that he was able to call it on his own terms and, like you said, get a strong finish.

Ellie Kemper in The Office.

IGN: Ellie, we were talking about those last couple weeks and knowing “This is it.” What was that like for you?

Kemper: I was very strong until the bitter end, I think. And our finale was so nuts, in a great way. It took us to many locations, and we worked longer hours than we’d ever worked, and more days and stuff. Then it kind of felt like there was an adrenaline - like a lack-of-sleep kind of high.

Kinsey: Yeah, you didn’t have time to be emotional, in some cases. Every once in awhile, it would hit me in a moment. There would be a scene, and it was the moments when I wasn’t so active in the scene, and I looked out across the faces and I would just become overwhelmed with emotion. Because I was watching these people I loved do this amazing show that I loved to do. But other than that, it was kind of like a sprint. It was like go, go, go, go, go. So you had to sort of check the emotion, or you wouldn’t get through it.

Kemper: Yeah, it was that exact same experience when we were filming the actual very final scenes. I don’t know what happened, but something kicked in, and I couldn’t stop crying. It’s lucky to be sad about that, I guess.

Kinsey: Yeah, I couldn’t get through my last talking head. I just started crying.

Kemper: Aw, I know!

Kinsey: And this is one of my favorite stories from the finale, for my experience: Greg Daniels was on set, and I’m standing over by the accounting desk, and I’m doing my last talking head forever, for the show, and I just start crying. He’s like, “What’s wrong, what’s wrong?” I go, “This is my last talking head.” And he goes, “No it’s not. I’ll go write you another one,” and he sprinted out of the room. So I’m there with Ken Kwapis, who is directing, and I do this talking head. Then Greg runs back in and hands me another one, and I do that one. And that was my last one. Then he gave me this big hug. It was really emotional, and I think everyone had moments like that.

Ellie Kemper and Angela Kinsey.

IGN: Obviously you can’t give away things, but what would you say about the actual finale storyline-wise, and what did you think, reading it, as far as this as the culmination of this series?

Kemper: That was the beginning of the end, that table read. My gosh. That was really...

Kinsey: Like, sobbing. Tissue boxes by our seats.

Kemper: Yeah, because Greg has a very kind of fatherly way about him, I would say.

Kinsey: Yes, and he has such a connection to the show in a way that really no one -- it’s very unique for him. This was his baby. His care for the characters, his love of the show and the world, is so pure and wonderful. To witness it, it’s an emotional thing, especially at the end. That’s makes sense, right?